Thursday 11th March 1915

At some point during their stay in Folkestone, Tunstill’s Company received a programme of French lessons in preparation for their deployment. How this came about cannot be established for certain, but the basic fact can be established from a newspaper advertisement which subsequently appeared in several editions of the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate and Cheriton Herald. 

INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGES

AND TRANSLATION OFFICE

DIRECTOR: PROF. E.  de NIEMIRA

Late Instructor in French of the N.C.O.’s and men of “A” Company, Duke of Wellington’s 10^th West Riding Regiment and 30^th Battalion C.E.F.

TEACHINGS AND TRANSLATIONS IN

French, English, Flemish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Greek, Latin

2 BROADMEAD ROAD, FOLKESTONE

Edgar de Niemira was a Belgian citizen who had spent some time in England before the outbreak of war (he had married in London in 1912). He became a well-known figure in Folkestone during the war, not only providing language lessons for civilians, officers and men, but also subsequently being employed as a languages master at The Harvey Grammar School. He and his wife, Marguerite, were also heavily involved in presenting musical concerts and other entertainments in the town and Edgar spoke to a local audience about the German occupation of his home town of Aalst in Belgium. He subsequently became involved in a protracted case relating to his eligibility for compulsory military service.